Wet chip materials are generated in the course of machining operations. Often the wet chip material, which can vary in size and configuration, is passed through a shredder apparatus that serves to shred the material prior to its passing on to other work stations, e.g., filtering or centrifugal separation stations.
Shredder apparatuses for shredding wet chip materials are well known in the art. Conventional shredder apparatuses include systems that utilize a plurality of spaced shredder members that are disposed upon a rotatable rotor. One example is the shredder apparatus shown and disclosed in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/611,526, filed Jul. 1, 2003, the disclosure, drawings and claims of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein. Upon actuation of such a shredder apparatus, the rotor rotates, and the shredder members fixed to the rotor rotate and cooperate with shredder comb members to shred material entering the apparatus.
In some instances, however, it has been found that, because of the nature of the material to be shredded, the shredder apparatus experiences difficulty in properly transporting the material to be shredded to the shredder components, such that appropriate shredding does not occur. For example, certain wet chip material, e.g., ball bearing-type scrap material or scrap rings formed in the manufacture of pistons, sometimes fail to shred properly with conventional shredding apparatuses. It has been found that this type of material, once it enters the shredder apparatus, is not properly carried to the shredder components within the shredder apparatus.
What is desired is to have a shredder apparatus that allows for the appropriate shredding of material whereby material to be shredded is properly transported to and within the shredder apparatus.
It is also desired to have a shredder apparatus where the shredder elements that cooperate to shred material are positioned principally orthogonal to the primary flow direction of the material to be shredded.
It is further desired to have a shredder apparatus located at least partially in a coolant flow path so that coolant flowing along the flow path and through the shredder apparatus assists in moving material through the shredder.
Finally, it is desired to have a shredder apparatus where, if desired, the shredding can occur without the requirement of having rotating shredding elements located on a rotating shaft-like member.